The mission of the Bureau of Consular Affairs is to protect the lives and interests of American citizens overseas and to strengthen U.S. border security.  Consular work is about touching people’s lives in a thousand different ways every day.  We deal with events and issues that have a personal impact: birth, death, marriage, adoption, child custody, citizenship, and relocation to another country.  CA provides the passports that enable Americans to travel internationally and stands ready to lend a helping hand when citizens fall victim to crime, accident or illness in other countries, or just want to vote absentee.  We make decisions and take actions every day that form key turning points in people’s lives.

We have no higher responsibility than safeguarding our country’s citizens and borders through vigilance in the visa process, and we are determined to carry out this responsibility in the best and most effective manner possible.  Following regulations established by Congress in the Immigration and Nationality Act, consular officers overseas are responsible for issuing all non-immigrant and immigrant visas.  We provide consular officers worldwide with the policies, tools, and training to stop questionable or problematic travelers overseas long before they ever reach our shores.  We share our data with other agencies to facilitate identification of legitimate travelers at ports of entry and to expose impostors.  We also work every day with business, industry, the academic community, and the general public to see that access to our country is not impeded for foreigners whose presence we encourage and value.